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Refurb 2.53 MBP vs new 2.66 MBP

M

MrPlanters

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 13, 2009
2
0
Hi,

I want to buy my first mac, but I hesitate between: (all in CAD $)

Refurbished 2.53 MBP/6MB cache, 512 vram, 4 gig ram at 1650$

vs

new 2.66/3MB cache, 256 vram, 4 gig ram at 2150$ (minus the ipod touch I would resell (I would buy the new one by my university))

So it's like 1650 vs 1950. To my eyes the refurb seems superior except for battery and the screen. I will be a light~moderate gamer and 512MB vram will buy me some peace of mind for future games.

So, does the battery and the screen worth 300$? I plan to buy an SSD and the express card + esata drives seem to be a good to expand the MBP storage.

Thanks for the advice guys!
 
MrPlanters said:
Hi,

I want to buy my first mac, but I hesitate between: (all in CAD $)

Refurbished 2.53 MBP/6MB cache, 512 vram, 4 gig ram at 1650$

vs

new 2.66/3MB cache, 256 vram, 4 gig ram at 2150$ (minus the ipod touch I would resell (I would buy the new one by my university))

So it's like 1650 vs 1950. To my eyes the refurb seems superior except for battery and the screen. I will be a light~moderate gamer and 512MB vram will buy me some peace of mind for future games.

So, does the battery and the screen worth 300$? I plan to buy an SSD and the express card + esata drives seem to be a good to expand the MBP storage.

Thanks for the advice guys!
Click to expand...


I say go for the refurb unless you really need that 2 hours more battery life. The refurb's a pretty solid unit too. ;)
 
I vote also for the refurb. I ordered one the moment I saw it for that price, and I was supposed to be getting the 13" mbp. The 2.53 refurb is just a sweet spot right now for the money.
 
MrPlanters said:
So, does the battery and the screen worth 300$? I plan to buy an SSD and the express card + esata drives seem to be a good to expand the MBP storage.
Click to expand...

If you don't know whether longer battery life is worth it, it probably isn't for you. Imagine how you'll be using it - will you often/sometimes/ever need more than 4-5 hours of battery life? If not, get the refurb. You could even get a second battery for less than you'll be saving, if you actually needed it. I don't know about screen improvements, but while it was an issue with 13" MB, MBP's screen was always considered to be very good (for a glassy one, anyway).

I still can't believe they downgraded CPUs.
 
I say go with the 2.53, with out a doubt. It is a much better computer, aside from the battery life, it has a better video card, more L2 cache, and the low price make it a no brainer, for me anyway.
 
The 2.66 does have the ability to take 8 gigs of ram, which may give it a little longer staying power.

I wouldn't suggest that you buy the ram now of course, it's too frakkin' expensive. But you can bet your sweet bippie that ddr3 prices will dramatically decrease in a year or two, like they did with ddr2 ram.

A ram upgrade is generally one of the cheapest and most effective upgrades you can make to a computer, along with a faster/larger hd.

Case in point, I have a 12" 1.5 ghz g4 powerbook maxed out with 1.25 gigs of ram, and it can still quite capably do consumer level computing like surf the net, e mail, word processing, etc.

If, in all honesty, you think you'll probably be trading in/up when the new quads come out in a year or so, you may as well get the 2.53 refurb, or maybe keep using your existing system until it comes out if practicable.
 
Mmmm, this ram thing bother me. Is that true that I wont be able to upgrade to 8 gig of ram with the late 2008 unibody? It's true that it's the thing you can upgrade that keep running your machine well. I plan to keep the notebook for ~4 years.

So, is 8 gig possible in the future?
 
MrPlanters said:
Mmmm, this ram thing bother me. Is that true that I wont be able to upgrade to 8 gig of ram with the late 2008 unibody? It's true that it's the thing you can upgrade that keep running your machine well. I plan to keep the notebook for ~4 years.

So, is 8 gig possible in the future?
Click to expand...

No, the 2008's only offically support 4 gigs of ram, though 6 gigs are reported unofficially. 8 gigs have been reported to frak your system up.

If you go to 6 on the 2008's, I'm unsure if you'd lose dual channel performance completely, or if 4 gigs would be dual channel, and the last two not.

Everything I've read on the forums suggest that the 4/6 gig limit on the 2008's are a hardware issue, and therefore is unlikely to be fixed with an update. I also suspect that even if it can be fixed, apple would likely not implement it so as to encourage people to buy their brand new machines.
 
Ram

there is speculation that with Snow Leopard the late 2008 MBPs will be able to handle 8GB as the issue is software. The hardware can handle the 8GB but Leopard cannot.
 
mavfan11 said:
there is speculation that with Snow Leopard the late 2008 MBPs will be able to handle 8GB as the issue is software. The hardware can handle the 8GB but Leopard cannot.
Click to expand...

Whether or not Apple will release a firmware update to allow that is another issue...
 
clyde2801 said:
Then please explain to me why a 2.66 uMBP, early 2009, will handle 8 gigs while the 2.53 will not, when they both run leopard?
Click to expand...

Maybe for the same reason that they made the early intel Macbooks, (or was it the Airport Extreme?) were wireless N compatible but didn't enable it until a small firmware update "unlocked" this ability the computer had all along (didn't some people have to pay $1 for this as well?). Or perhaps they wanted people to think they had to buy the faster processor to get the eventual ability to get 8GB of RAM and if you opted for 2.53 you were limiting yourself. I don't know what goes on in their heads at Apple but they aren't some purely benevolent company that always does what is best for their customer at any cost. BTW should I add a signature which lists all my Apple stuff so you don't think I'm a hater? 2.53 ghz unibody Macbook Pro 512mb nVidia, 4GB RAM, 1.83 ghz Macbook, 2GB RAM, iphone 2G with 3G S on the way, Airport Extreme and a Dell Mini 9 with Leopard on a 32GB Runcore SSD.
 
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